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Hazardous conditions in Ventura Harbor’s entrance.

214,000 additional cubic yards of sand have accumulated in the entrance. Photo by Ventura Harbor Patrol

By Stan Whisenhunt

Ventura Port District officials are waiting anxiously to find out if there will be additional funding for dredging at Ventura Harbor which is to begin any day now.

Heavy shoaling due to recent storms and high surf has caused hazardous conditions in Ventura Harbor’s entrance.

Richard Parsons, dredging program manager for the district, said that 214,000 additional cubic yards of sand have accumulated in the entrance since Dec. 28.

Ventura Port District officials, working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, have launched a two-phased program to address safety issues and to ensure that the upcoming dredging operation that is already scheduled can be expanded to address this safety issue.

Pleasure craft boaters have been warned by the Ventura Harbor Patrol to not venture out of the harbor, while commercial fishermen have been advised to proceed at their own risk. The year’s first sailboat race at the harbor, Ventura Yacht Club’s PHRF Regatta 1, was cancelled and will be rescheduled. The second race of the year, Pierpont Bay Yacht Club’s Spring Series 1, scheduled for Feb. 13, will be delayed if necessary.

Harbormaster John Higgins has met with the managers of the harbor’s marinas and local yacht clubs to brief them on the situation and to advise their boaters to stay out of the entrance. He is working with the U.S. Coast Guard to issue warnings to commercial fishermen, going so far as to prepare warning fliers in Vietnamese to be sure that local fishermen in the area understand the safety issued posed by heavy shoaling. Boats, which by necessity need to leave or enter the harbor, have been escorted by the harbor patrol.

Meanwhile, Parsons, General Manager Oscar Pena and Port Commissioners Ev Ashworth and Greg Carson have been meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who are responsible for the dredging of the harbor, to help secure an additional $2 million for dredging.

Pena said that California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congresswoman Julia Brownley “fully support the Port’s requirements” and have reached out to the Corps of Engineers on behalf of the Port District.

The Corps of Engineers recently issued a dredging contract to Manson Company, which was scheduled to start dredging the harbor on Feb. 9. In light of the safety issues posed by the heavy shoaling, Manson Company operators hoped to have the dredge in place as early as Feb. 1, depending on sea conditions. The dredge was in Long Beach undergoing repairs.

The depth of the entrance channel, normally about 40 feet, is now 14 feet or less and narrow to the point that two boats could not safely pass one another in the entrance, said Higgins. The entrance channel width is normally 300 feet, but now because of all the sand, it is about 40 feet wide. The district estimates there are 900,000 cubic yards of sand in the harbor sand trap and entrance.

“While the situation will continue to deteriorate,” Parsons said, “our team is putting everything is in place to get this remedied as soon as possible.”

The Corps contract calls for dredging 460,000 cubic yards of sand. If the district is successful in gaining the additional $2 million, 340,000 more cubic yards of sand could be dredged.

“The challenge is to get that additional money into the contract very quickly,” Parsons said. Port District officials and commissioners have been meeting with senior personnel and staff of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District to coordinate the response to this emergency.

Higgins said three factors are making the entrance very dangerous – unusually large waves and swells from the El Nino condition, shoaling and a strong current – sometimes as fast as 10 knots – running along the inside of the breakwater.

The Tall Ships, Hawaiian Chieftain and Lady Washington, which had been at the harbor as a visitor attraction, left for Channel Islands Harbor on Jan. 21. “We think it is in everyone’s best interest for the Tall Ships to leave now to avoid the potential of having them stuck here through early February,” said Port District General Manager Oscar Pena at the time.

Pena noted that although the Harbor is experiencing entrance problems, all the businesses in the harbor are open.